Tea with the Queen
by pinkieponk
Summary: Have you ever wondered if Queen Joanne Rowling ever met the Chosen One? I have... Harry is all set for a comfortable night in but Jo has other ideas. Fun one-shot about what might happen if Harry were to meet his creator and our Queen, JK Rowling. Enjoy!


**Hi guys. Wow. Am I bad at keeping promises or what?**

**So I've returned, much to what I'm sure will be my Beta's happy surprise, only I've returned with a one-shot that is nothing like what I normally write.**

**However, I've recently been thinking about what would happen if my own real characters in my own personal books, met me I think they would hate me, to be honest. I can be really mean with their lives.**

**However, that also inspired a thought about Harry Potter and what would happen if the Chosen One met the Great Queen Joanne Rowling.**

**So here's something I pulled together today. I hope you like it. It's different. That's for sure. And I pray I don't get hate...**

**Thanks guys for everything xx Enjoy!**

**Pinke ;)**

**Tea with the Queen**

_The Beginning _

Harry Potter, aged forty, settled down by his fireplace with a cup of lukewarm tea and a novel his wife, Ginny, had recommended.

He was all set for a quiet Saturday night in while his wife was away at a press conference for _the Daily Prophet_, just as usual.

Apparently that was not going to happen though.

Because he was just getting into the novel when his head began pounding.

Strange… his forehead hadn't hurt since he was barely eighteen.

Frowning deeply, Harry rubbed his head and felt worry settle in his stomach.

Whatever the reason for his headache, it could not be good.

His headaches were never "just headaches", that he knew well.

So, with a growing sense of restlessness, Harry stood up again and moved into his kitchen.

Maybe he just needed some water…

At the sink with a glass, Harry hung his head slightly and took a long drink.

Just as the pain in his forehead exploded in a flash of white light.

Wincing, the glass slipping through Harry's fingers and the last thing he heard was a loud _smash_…

Before everything went black.

_Meeting the Queen_

When Harry woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was standing, an odd position to be in post-faint.

With a slight frown, he opened his eyes to a blinding light and winced a little, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness.

Once able to see again, Harry was aware of three things.

One, that the blinding light was, indeed, sunlight, unusual and frightening considering he had just settled down to his night-time routine before he fainted.

Two, that he was in a small and quaint kitchen that was most definitely _not _his own.

And finally three, that there was a woman, a stranger he'd never seen before, standing in front of him and peering at him in what looked like curiosity.

Immediately, panic spread through Harry.

The woman didn't _look _threatening but…

She was middle-aged, but pretty, with kind and wise features. She had blonde hair streaked with darker browns and golds and the occasional silver.

The woman wasted no time in introducing herself as Joanne ('but I prefer Jo') Rowling, making it clear that she knew Harry personally even though he had never seen this woman before in his life. She then launched into a long but not all that confusing explanation and the most Harry could gather from it was that she was the woman who invented his entire life and, ultimately, his entire universe.

Surprisingly enough, though being told that his universe and everything and everyone in it is the product of a woman named Joanne's imagination should be a lot to take in, Harry found himself accepting what she was saying easily.

A little _too_ easily…

He thought it had something to do with the power Jo seemed to think she held over his life.

What didn't come as a surprise, however, was that once Jo was finished explaining that the whole of Harry's life was a work of _fiction_…

He had to sit for a little while, just to take it in.

Jo seemed to smile at him and his very clearly dazed expression, ending with a light note.

'Tea, Harry?' she offered.

Harry stared at her. Then stared some more.

Then blinked for good measure.

Tea?_ Tea?_

Really?

'U-uh, sure. Th-thanks…' he stammered. And as Jo put the kettle on to boil, Harry shook his head, trying to regain some kind of sense. 'I-I have a few questions,' he blurted the truth.

'Of course you do,' smiled Jo. 'That's why I brought you here, Harry.'

Harry stared at her.

'_You _brought me here?'

'Of course,' laughed Jo. 'Who did you think it was?'

Harry shook his head again, wondering why he felt so calm when his entire world had just been revealed to him as a lie.

'I-I don't know,' he stammered.

For a while Harry just let his mind whirl, coming up with a number of questions and accusations to fire at this woman.

Was it sad that he was happy to finally be able to blame someone else but himself?

Probably…

When the tea was done, Jo sat in front of him and poured him a cup.

'Milk?'

'No thanks.'

'Sugar?'

'One… please.'

Jo smiled at him and, with a frustrating amount of placidness, began preparing his tea.

'So… questions?' Jo's smile was a permanent fixture.

'Um…' Harry searched around wildly for a suitable thing to ask as she placed his tea in front of him. 'Thanks… So… Why are Hermione and Ron always fighting?'

Well that was lame.

In the confusion that was Harry's mind, that was the only thing he could think to ask.

Jo blinked.

Then gave a warm, full-hearted laugh.

'_That _is what you want to know?' she questioned, her blue eyes sparkling.

Harry nodded slowly.

'Yes. You have no idea how difficult they can be,' he said automatically. Then he hesitated. 'But… then again… you probably… know… better than I do.'

Jo gave another laugh.

'Yes, I believe that's true,' she said. Then a thoughtful expression passed across her features. 'I've never really thought about _why_, to be honest, Harry. Opposite personalities, maybe. What you have to understand is that although I created them, I only have a certain amount of power over my characters, Hermione, Ron and _you _included. So I think that's something only _they _can figure out.'

Harry frowned.

Huh.

He was really hoping she'd have all the answers he could ever wish for…

Apparently not…

'Oh,' said Harry.

Jo's smile turned sympathetic.

'I know I've made it very hard for you, Harry, but I have to tell you now that though I will listen to your questions, I won't always be able to answer them.'

Harry nodded slightly.

'Okay…'

'Anything else?'

Harry thought for a moment.

Then he knew what next to ask.

And though it was probably a hard question for Jo to answer…

He had to try.

'Why…' Harry took in a deep breath then let it out. Pain filled his expression and when he next spoke, his voice was quiet. 'So many people… _died _for me during the war. W-why? Why did you let it happen?'

Immediately, sympathy once more reigned over Jo's features.

'Harry…' She reached out and laid a warm hand on his arm. For a moment, Harry was reminded inexplicably of Hermione. But then the moment was gone and Jo was just Jo, albeit looking very sad. 'I'm sorry. I can only imagine what it must have been like for you. But… Tom needed to be destroyed. And the only way for you to live during your final confrontation had to be through the sacrifices your friends and family made during the conflict.

'War, though terrible and unnecessary, will always contain a price and too many times that price is the life of many innocents. There is no way to justify what happened during the second Wizarding War. Death cannot be justified within battle. But know that everyone who was injured or killed during that war did not go through pain and suffering for nothing. The Wizarding World is safe. And though too many sacrifices were made in order to restore peace, these are the consequences of war.

'Don't live in the past, Harry. Live in the present with you wife and three children. Despite the loss you have endured as well as the losses those around you have suffered, you are safe. You have a family and a wonderful life in the present. Don't live in the past.'

Harry didn't realise he was crying until the tears fell over his cheeks.

He hurried to wipe them away, angry at his clear emotional distress.

Something in Harry broke during the second Wizarding War and even decades later, it still wasn't healed.

He understood everything Jo said. He just didn't like it. So many people, some friends, some family, some he didn't even know, died for his sake and the sake of a war he might as well have started.

No wonder he was a broken man.

There was something about Jo's words, though, that offered a strangely large amount of comfort.

Then Harry realised why.

Jo sounded not only like Hermione, but Dumbledore too, forever giving pieces of advice that seemed useless, but helped in the long-run.

This made Harry smile a little through his tears.

And it also brought another question to mind.

'Why did you make Horcrux hunting so hard for us? Hermione and Ron were probably the only reason I ever managed to destroy them all. And… and… they almost left me because Dumbledore left me so little to go by. Close to nothing! So I want to know why you didn't let me know more before sending me on a life-threatening journey,' said Harry.

Jo smiled a little.

'Ah, Dumbledore. Even I don't understand him at times,' she said but from the way she talked, with a fond warmth in her tone, Harry got the impression she thought of Dumbledore as someone either lesser than her or on the same intellectual level, which Harry found hard to believe. Jo's look became thoughtful, though, apparently not noticing Harry's raised eyebrows.

'I presume that Albus, believed that in order for you to destroy Tom, you had to understand who he was. Though I could be wrong. See… I believe that it was up to you to grow and develop and discover who Tom was as a young man and as a boy in order to defeat him on your own. It wouldn't have been the same nor would it have been as effective, had Albus spoon-fed you the information rather than allowing you to work it out for yourself.'

Harry shook his head, thinking the he could recognise more and more of his role-models in this woman.

'So you just let me suffer, let _us _suffer? We were almost killed! Multiple times! Ron abandoned us, leaving Hermione _heart-broken_! And all for the fact that I needed to discover things myself? What if I couldn't do it? What would have happened to me if Hermione had left with Ron? It was definitely a possibility! Then I would have failed, no doubt about it. You and Dumbledore risked the future of the entire world if only for the slight chance that I'd somehow manage to figure _something _out that would then result in the uneasy discovery that Tom Riddle likes a bit of power, which we already knew beforehand!' shouted Harry, more riled up than he had intended to become.

He just couldn't help it.

Throughout Horcrux hunting, they had been through so many hardships and now learning that it could have been well prevented got to Harry more than words could explain.

Jo's smile was still there, though, so maybe she hadn't been too offended by what he had said.

'Oh, Harry,' she said, shaking her head in a way that screamed Hermione. 'You never give yourself enough credit, nor do you credit your friends who stand by you.'

Harry began to protest but Jo shook her head again.

'Just hear me out.' He clamped his mouth shut but his eyes were furious. 'You never would have failed. Never. Of course there were times when you came close or you could have come close but the only way you could have ever failed is if you were left totally alone and abandoned by those you have the most faith in.'

Now Harry couldn't help but interrupt.

'But that almost happened! Hermione almost left! You know it as well as I do!' he shouted.

And Jo nodded in acceptance.

'Yes. I won't deny it and say that Hermione did consider, multiple times, leaving you and finding Ron instead. That was, indeed, what her heart wished to do. However she was aware at the time that the repercussions of that certain action would be too dire, which is why I have to say again that you do not give enough credit to your friends, especially Hermione.

'She knew that by leaving you, you would be stuck alone and without help and the logic in her mind told her that, although you are smart and brave and a hero, you need those around you just like every other mortal man. So though she may have considered leaving you, it was never a real possibility. Hermione knew better than to abandon you in your time of need. And there was always a part of her that knew Ron would come back eventually.'

For a moment Harry frowned at Jo, trying to take in everything she said.

When she put it like that…

No. He didn't give Hermione enough credit.

Nor did he give Ron the recognition he deserved either.

All throughout his battle with Voldemort, Harry had been focused on his hardships and what _he _was going through.

When really, he hadn't stopped to notice those around him and the emotional sacrifices they made that were harder to see than the _physical_ losses they suffered.

And immediately, Harry felt the guilt that often returned to him when he least expected it.

Instead of having a question for Jo, Harry realised he needed to talk to her about something that had been weighing on his mind since he was eleven and had just returned from battling Voldemort for the second time.

'This is all because of me,' he said lowly. Quietly. Sadly. 'I have put everyone's lives in danger, Hermione and Ron have done so much and lost so much for _my sake. _Sirius, Lupin, Dumbledore, mum, dad, Cedric, everyone who died, died for _me_. And though I understand their sacrifices better now, I'm still unreleased from the guilt at what I have caused for those living and deceased.'

Jo slowly, slowly, shook her head.

'I knew this would come up eventually,' she said quietly. 'Harry, you have to understand that by the end of the war, it was no longer about you. From your perspective it may have seemed and looked that way and granted you were the saviour everyone was relying on but you were in no way at fault and you should feel no guilt for what happened and the loss the world has suffered.

'Everyone has a choice, whether that be to fight for good, for bad or to remain an observer, everyone has a choice. And it was through the choice of fighting with you, not for you, that those sacrifices were made. Everyone and anyone who fought for good but suffered a loss, did not suffer it for your sake. They suffered it for the sake you were all, individually, fighting for together. There is no you or me or I in war, and though you were the salvation, that hasn't changed. Yes, everyone fought for your cause, but it was their cause too. You were the hero of their fight. But you were also the hero of the fight they chose stand in.

'There is no reason for you to feel guilty, any more than the next man should feel guilty for fighting too. You were doing what is right. And everyone who stood, not behind you, but _with_ you was fighting for the same cause as you. _You _were not the cause, Harry. Good and light and justice was the cause. You were simply the face of the people's hope.'

This time Harry took his time in replying, having to take in everything Jo said carefully.

After what seemed like hours of consideration, Harry realised that she was right.

All this time he had thought it was just his fight.

It wasn't.

It was the Wizarding World's fight as well.

And just like him, the people around him suffered losses.

But not for his sake.

For the sake of good. And for the sake of peace.

And all of a sudden, Harry felt so much easier, so much more peaceful.

Unbeknownst to him, a slow smile made its way onto Harry's face.

'Thank you,' he all but whispered. 'You can't know how much you have helped.'

Jo smiled warmly and widely at him.

'Anything to release you of your burden.'

Harry smiled properly.

Then hesitated.

'Jo… are we done here?' he asked, feeling as though their meeting was coming to an end.

'As always, you surprise me your intuition,' smiled Jo. 'Yes, I do believe we are if there aren't any more questions you wish to ask.'

Harry thought for a moment.

Then one last query came to him.

'Why do you call Voldemort Tom?' he asked out of more curiosity than anything else.

Jo smiled.

'I am going to go the full cliché and say that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. Names mean power, Harry. And when I look at Voldemort, all I see is a lost and mistreated young boy. So to me he will always be Tom.'

'Even after he has lost all his humanity and love?'

Jo smiled.

'I don't believe he had any to lose in the beginning, Harry,' she said.

Harry raised his eyebrows slightly then gave a small smile.

'I think Dumbledore would concur. He always said the one thing Voldemort could never understand was love,' he said.

'Because he never had the _opportunity_ to understand it,' said Jo. 'However, now… I believe you must go.'

Harry nodded.

'I was quite looking forward to my book, actually,' he said.

Jo smiled fully, her eyes crinkling at the corners and shining.

'Yes, sorry for that. I didn't realise bringing you here would panic you so much,' she said and both her and Harry stood.

'It's all right. Now I've just got to think for an entire night and day and revel in the fact that my entire life is a work of fiction.'

Jo said nothing, smiling still.

'But it was wonderful to meet you,' said Harry. 'That was an incredible conversation.'

'I knew it would be,' smiled Jo. 'But I bid you farewell, Harry. You have to return to your world.'

'Goodbye, Jo. Thank you.'

'Once more, anything to help you. I know I've been hard but I can't bring myself to apologise.'

Harry laughed.

'Because it was all necessary, wasn't it?' he asked.

Jo nodded slowly, smiling.

'Have a nice night, Harry.'

'You as well when night does fall.'

'Thank you. And I'll see you probably sooner than you think.'

Harry was about to reply when all of a sudden his forehead began pounding, harder than it had before.

And after a moment of pain and another flash of white, bright intense light…

Harry disappeared from Joanne Rowling's kitchen, leaving the author with a smile.

_Going Home_

I type away at my computer, not a method I normally use but something I have gotten used to.

I always wondered what would happen if I really ever did meet my Harry Potter.

And now that I have written the scene, his words are vivid in my mind.

Of course I feel guilt.

But of course he was right in assuming that the hardships were required.

I finish the scene off with a let-down sentence, but still a sentence to set the universe in my mind right.

_Harry woke up, sitting by the fire, to find his tea had gone cold._

_It had been a dream._

_And what a strange dream it was._

_Of course he still held the feeling of contentment the figure of his imagination, Jo, left with him._

_But he knew that it had been a wild fantasy. His life was as real as everything that had happened in the forty years he'd lived it._

_His pain and suffering proved that more than words could._

_Though somehow, he knew, though inexplicably, that his latest dream would prove to help him more than he could have ever hoped for._

Smiling, I shake my head. I can't have Harry thinking his life is fiction. That would ruin the entire order of his world.

And still, it's not as though anyone is going to read this but I.

It was just for my own amusement.

I'm surprised Harry wasn't angrier at me, though.

Everything that I have put him through… it's a wonder he could look at me without strangling me first.

But Harry is Harry.

And no matter what, though he is my character, he holds a certain amount of control over himself.

As I have always said, my characters are more people than a work of fiction and that won't ever change.

This much is proved to me always when they surprise me continually, over and over.

After a while, I get lost in my thoughts, thinking about my books and my universe and my wizardry.

Magic isn't real. No.

That I know for sure.

However…

_I do believe… something magical can happen when you read a good book_.

**Well I really hope you all like it. I quite like it, to be honest. And it was so much fun to write! Sorry if you disagree with anything I say but I genuinely believe that this is how JK Rowling would answer Harry's questions and vice versa.**

**Disclaimer: I cannot and do not hope to be anything ****_like _****Joanne Rowling thereby everything about and in Harry's world belongs to her, as you and I have just read and experienced. **

**Love Live the Queen!**

**Love you all, please Review, Favourite and Follow! And maybe I'll see you again sometime!**

**Pinkieponk xx**


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